Machynlleth, United Kingdom

The weekly market and biannual fair thrived, and in 1613 drew complaints from other towns whose trading in cloth was being severely affected. A document dated 1632 shows that animals for sale came from all over Merionethshire, Montgomeryshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire and Denbighshire, and prospective buyers came from Flintshire, Radnorshire, Brecknockshire, Herefordshire and Shropshire, in addition to the above.

The Dyfi Bridge (Welsh: Pont ar Ddyfi) was first mentioned in 1533, by Geoffrey Hughes, who left £6 13s 4d (ten marks) towards the making of the bridge.

Rowland Pugh was the Lord of Meirionedd, and lived at Mathafarn about two miles east of Machynlleth. Pugh supported the Royalist side in the English Civil War. On 2 November 1644, Sir Thomas Myddleton of Chirk Castle was marching on Machynlleth with a force of the Parliamentarian army, when he was ambushed by a force organised by Pugh. In retaliation for the attack, Myddleton burned down Mathafarn on 29 November 1644, along with a number of houses in Machynlleth.

Laura Ashley's first shop was opened in Machynlleth (at 35 Maengwyn Street) in 1961.

The disappearance of April Jones in October 2012 received a large amount of coverage in the UK media.

In 1846 Mary Cornelia, the daughter of a local landowner Sir John Edwards married Viscount Seaham, the second son of the third Marquess of Londonderry and they set up home at Plas Machynlleth. Seaham became Earl Vane on the death of his father and the fifth Marquess on the death of his half-brother.

To celebrate the 21st birthday of the Seahams’ eldest son, Viscount Castlereagh, the townspeople paid for the clock tower which stands at the town's main road intersection. Erected on the site of the old town hall, it stands at 23.7m tall and has become the symbol of the town. The foundation stone was laid on 15 July 1874 amid great festivities. The clock tower, designed by Henry Kennedy of Bangor and now a Grade II listed monument, cost £800; the townspeople raised £1,000, of which the remainder was spent planting trees along nearby streets. Meanwhile, a new town hall was erected on the east side of Penrallt Street in 1872; after becoming unsafe, it was demolished in 1968.

Another son, Lord Herbert Vane-Tempest, was the last member of the family to live at the Plas and was killed in the Abermule train collision on the Cambrian Railways, of which he was a director.

The house was given to the townspeople in December 1948 under the stewardship of the then Machynlleth Urban District Council.

Although many sources state that the foundation stone was laid in 1874, the clock tower’s own dedicatory plaque records that it was erected to commemorate the coming of age of Charles Stewart Vane‑Tempest, Viscount Castlereagh, on 15 July 1873. Local historical accounts and community records note that the public subscription that funded the tower also provided for street planting, and that the town celebrated its centenary in July 1973 on the basis of the 1873 date. The clock was constructed by Edward Edwards and his brother John Edwards, local builders whose families continued to live in Machynlleth and its surrounding area.

Various local government re-organisations saw responsibility for the Plas pass first to Montgomeryshire District Council, who in 1995 converted it into the Celtica visitor centre. Celtica interpreted the history and culture of the Celts with a walk-through audio-visual exhibition housed in a purpose-built addition to the house. The £3 million attraction was part-funded by the European Union. The centre had a high-profile in the Welsh media, with opera singer Bryn Terfel officially opening the attraction in October 1995.

Powys County Council took over Celtica and the house when it was formed as a unitary authority in 1997. The centre was successful in attracting tourists, school groups and conferences for a number of years; however initial predictions of visitor numbers proved to be too ambitious, and the council was unwilling to prolong its subsidy. With little scope for alternative investment, Celtica closed in March 2006, and the house stood empty while Powys County Council sought to relinquish responsibility for it in line with their policy of selling many of their publicly owned buildings.